posted on August 23, 2005 01:40:29 PM new
They are saying it would sure intimadate the walmart shopper to see Tuna at 14.99 a lb or beef tenderloin at 22.99 a lb.
just how many hours do they need to work to afford a lb of tuna or a lb of beef tenderloin?
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on August 23, 2005 03:08:41 PM new
I hate that place-the people in there make my skin crawl.I went in there in the middle of the afternoon one day.1/2 of them looked like they were wanted by the I.N.S. and the other 1/2 by the police dept.
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Golfer:Stop checking your watch all the time,its too much of a distraction.
Caddy:Its not a watch, its a compass
posted on August 23, 2005 03:49:51 PM new
I dont know how many of you remember Woolworth,Walmart is really the new and improved Woolworth.
Think of it,back then where do you go for fried chicken,popcorn,pretzel,polyester scarf,needles,pins,threads,socks,cheap cosmetics,nylons,cheap earrings??
I thought I was in pig heaven-everything for one dollar or less??
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on August 23, 2005 04:26:45 PM new
I remember woolworths-it didnt bother me back then..probably cause I was much younger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Golfer:Stop checking your watch all the time,its too much of a distraction.
Caddy:Its not a watch, its a compass
posted on August 23, 2005 04:32:25 PM new
I never buy any groceries at Wal-Mart. I can buy them anywhere else cheaper. It amazes me how much money people throw down at Wal-Mart when they can buy many items cheaper if they will watch the sales at other stores. Folgers Coffee cost me $4.49 at Sav-A-Lot,at Walmart it is almost $6.00 when its on sale. I buy a generic band of Telenol at Aldi for 99 cents. At Walmart its 3.49.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on August 23, 2005 05:51:20 PM new
mah- We live about 45 minutes from a walmart. We go about once a month or so and spend about $250 on groceries alone. For us, it really is alot less expensive than shopping for nonperishables in our little one-store town (grocery store). Some things are as much as 50% less.
posted on August 23, 2005 06:11:18 PM new
She Who Must Be Obeyed won't set foot in WalMart. I won't go in there any more either. There's a Supercenter in the town where we go to shop once a month. You need athletic shoes just to get from the parking lot into the store. Cheap chinese crap and overpriced groceries coupled with stupid clerks who don't know about the stuff they sell = none of my money. I'd rather pay half again as much and know that a greater portion of my money was staying in the community than what it takes to pay minimum wage earning part timers. Not that I have an opinion one way or the other of course. I'm sure WalMart is a fine establishment in many respects.
Not to mention the fact that everybody in the place is fat...oops, I didn't say that, nope.....
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Fue por lana y salió trasquilado...
posted on August 23, 2005 06:46:00 PM new
classic, I dont like that store either. Its just too big, and no real ambiance to the store. Even the friendly greeters are soo generic.... (Woolworth's had something this store way misses. I even think k-mart holds more appeal.) But I agree with Twig, you can save money there. I think a 1/2 gal of generic(non-dairy labeled) milk is like 1.79 or so there, whereas in the grocery stores here its well over 2.20 something. And whatever they are moving, they are moving. Its not just like a silly 10% or 20% off (like why do the grocery stores think I am going to buy something to save 20 cents on it??)
posted on August 23, 2005 07:05:08 PM new
the sad part is that everybody here hasn't mentioned the health aspects of shopping at walmart. buying generic milk??? that crap will give you cancer with all the pesticides, growth hormones, and whatever other crap they add to it to lower the price. i wouldn't be caught dead buying groceries, or really anything for that matter at walmart. they sell the most unhealthy, poorest quality meats and vegetables. Sure, those lemons or oranges look bright and shiny, but why do you have to wax them to look good? no way. i'm not dying on Walmart's behalf. it is bad enough they force their workers into welfare for them to poison people too.
posted on August 23, 2005 07:57:49 PM new
we all know organic food is better,but we may all end up living longer and running out of money.
We have a Kroger store nearby and everyone complains the prices are too high,but gradually we are finding out the quality is better,their freezer is colder and food last longer-milk,meat,even scallion,ginger last longer.
The weather is so hot these days down south,a cold cold freezer sure keep the meat fresh.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
posted on August 23, 2005 08:08:43 PM new
Chalk me up as another who refuses to step foot in Walmart. I can't stand that place. Dirty, crowded, aisles packed with stuff. I'll get my goods for 40 cents more at the local Mom & Pop, thanks.
posted on August 23, 2005 08:35:17 PM new
You can't beat Krogers meat,not only is it cheaper it taste much better. I would never buy meat from Wal-mart. Who wants a dead cow shipped in from China.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on August 23, 2005 09:08:21 PM new
I'll tell you something that is a heck of a lot cheaper in cost at Walmart is ammunition from their sporting goods dept. I can buy 45 auto ammo for less than half of what it costs at a gun store and 22 automatic is allmost half as much.
posted on August 23, 2005 09:30:09 PM new
I'll be the first to give WalMart the edge on prices on some things...they've almost single-handedly caused a cultural shift in the way people conduct their day to day business in this country, and I don't like it...no matter how cheap they are.
I can get a roll of duct tape at WalMart for a buck ninety eight. At my local hardware/feed store, it costs three dollars. But, I have to drive to WalMart, put up with overwrought women and their ill behaved children hogging the aisles, stupid, poorly trained and paid clerks, parking lots the size of my south pasture, and constant enticements to spend my money on useless crap I neither need, nor want. At the local feed store, I can run in, grab the roll of duct tape, wave it at Virgil the owner as I head for the door, and he puts it on my account. No register, no signature, no waiting. At the end of the month, I get a single, interest free statement to pay. No contest there with who gets my business.
____________________________________________
Fue por lana y salió trasquilado...
posted on August 23, 2005 11:35:03 PM new
While I don't expect this to go over well with all the anti-Wal-Mart posters...here's an article from the National Center for Policy Analysis
Despite the relentless attacks on Wal-Mart by community groups and labor unions, the local benefits provided by Wal-Mart far outweigh the costs, say Harvard University business professor Pankaj Ghemawat and business consultant Ken Mark.
Wal-Mart contributed to significant growth in labor productivity between 1995 and 2000.
When Wal-Mart enters a market, prices decrease by 8 percent in rural areas and 5 percent in urban areas.
With two-thirds of its stores located in rural areas, as a whole Wal-Mart saves customers about $16 billion a year.
Wal-Mart's customers tend to be those who could most benefit from low prices; 80 percent of Wal-Mart's square footage is located in the 25 percent of ZIP codes with the greatest number of poor households.
Without Wal-Mart, the rural poor would pay much more for food and other household goods, say Ghemawat and Mark.
Additionally, Mayor Pro Tem Philip E. Mella of Woodland Park, Colo., notes that Wal-Mart pays 25 percent above the average entry-level retail wage, and 70 percent of Wal-Mart's managers begin as front-line workers.
The billions of dollars in savings far exceed the costs that Wal-Mart supposedly imposes on society through loss of jobs, urban sprawl and driving employees to public welfare programs.
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Source: Pankaj Ghemawat and Ken A. Mark, "The Price is Right," Dallas Morning News, August 14, 2005; and Philip E. Mella, "Free Enterprise, Choice And Wal-Mart's Virtues," Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2005.
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And when I listen to you all describing your local Wal-Mart's the sure sound much different than ours here.
Their clean, clean, clean...modern bathroom facilities where you just hold your hands in front of the sink and the water comes on. Toilets flush themselves...changing tables for the babies...etc.
All aisles are wide enough for two 'skooters' [one going in each direction] and someone still could easily walk down the center, in between those skooters....if all happened to be lined up together.
All our produce is marked with where it came from and is fresh and crisp....sweet fruits that taste like they used to many years ago.... Meats...haven't ever had anything but a good experience with their meats. Especially their prime rib, porterhouse, t-bones...everything really.
They have so many checkout stands and most have clerks working them - they're not just empty lines. Many times we'll find the clerks standing out from were you get in line...waiting for someone to check-out.
I haven't got one thing I could find to complain about with our SuperWalMart Store.
And a lot of our elderly work there too. That is those who aren't riding around on those motorized skooters....about running the 'walkies' over. classic...we could use your services at directing skooter traffic at times.
posted on August 24, 2005 03:19:58 AM new
no problem...right out the door to main st through a red light.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Golfer:Stop checking your watch all the time,its too much of a distraction.
Caddy:Its not a watch, its a compass
posted on August 24, 2005 03:22:57 AM new
"At the local feed store, I can run in, grab the roll of duct tape, wave it at Virgil the owner as I head for the door"
are you sure that works?? I tried that one time and got arrested for shoplifting.
[ edited by classicrock000 on Aug 24, 2005 03:23 AM ]
posted on August 24, 2005 06:47:07 AM new
Walmarts scare me - my husband and I had a rule that we would never live within a 3 mile radius of a Walmart. Our last home just made the cut at 3.5 miles.
Does anyone remember the old days of Ebay - when you couldn't yet afford a digital camera, so you took all your pics, ran them up to Walmart and had to hang out there for an hour waiting to get them back?
I prefer Target - much more 'upscale' than Walmart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on August 24, 2005 06:50:38 AM new
I love my local feed-store too Profe..it is more expensive, but for all the reasons you said, makes it more convenient...I buy the dog food, ant spray, fertilizer and weed killer and can get my vaccine and other meds for the dog there.. etc.. etc.. and they always carry my heavy stuff out to the truck for me..added bonus..Maggie
posted on August 24, 2005 07:05:22 AM new
This article appears in the November 21, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Wal-Mart Collapses
U.S. Cities and Towns
by Richard Freeman
During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into communities and destroyed them, wiping out stores, slashing the tax base, and turning downtown areas into ghost-towns. This is accomplished through Wal-Mart's policy of paying workers below subsistence wages, and importing goods that have been produced under slave-labor conditions overseas. Often, communities will even give Wal-Mart tax incentives, for the right to be destroyed.
Wal-Mart both reflects, and is, a major driving force for America's deadly implementation of the Imperial Rome model. Unable to produce physical goods to sustain its own existence, the United States, like Rome, sucks in imported goods from around the world, using, in this case, a dollar that is over-valued by 50-60%. America has been transformed from a producer to a consumer society. From the 1940s through the early 1960s, through its technologically-advanced manufacturing-agricultural economy, America produced new value that contributed to mankind's advancement. Through a "post-industrial society" policy, the bankers have pushed Wal-Mart to the top of the heap, so that it is now the world's largest corporation, with $245.5 billion in sales last year. Wal-Mart, which produces no value-added whatsoever, dominates the geometry that governs the U.S. consumer society. America consumes goods that others produce, which Wal-Mart markets. Wal-Mart dictates, through its demand for low prices, that its suppliers outsource their production to foreign nations, further ripping down America's battered domestic manufacturing and agricultural capability, in a self-feeding process.
Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche has called for an international boycott of Wal-Mart. He told a cadre school of the LaRouche Youth Movement on Nov. 10: "Wal-Mart is probably one of the major foreign enemies of the United States! And, it's based in the United States. Where Wal-Mart strides, whole communities collapse! It runs in like a vampire: It flies in by night, and sucks the blood of the citizens, and the cows, and so forth. In the morning, there's not much left! Except unemployment and cheap labor. What Wal-Mart is doing to many communities of the Americas, is comparable to what happens to the poor Chinese, who are victims of the cheap-labor programs, which supply most of the product which Wal-Mart sells, as cheap-labor product."
Wal-Mart pays its American workers sweat-shop wages, and enforces a worldwide system of concentration camp production plants, where some workers are literally kept as indentured servants (see EIR, Nov. 14). Here, we look at how Wal-Mart has laid waste communities from Iowa to Mississippi, from Ohio to Oklahoma.
Destroying Iowa
Iowa represents the paradigm of Wal-Mart's destruction of a state and its communities. Iowa is a leading agricultural state, with an industrial center in its northeast. In 1983, Wal-Mart opened its first store in the state. Since that time, the number of other retail stores that Wal-Mart has forced to close in Iowa, in communities of 5,000 or fewer people, is immense.
Sam Walton started Wal-Mart in his home town of Bentonville, Arkansas in 1962. At first he concentrated on Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, along with a few other southern states. Beginning in the 1980s, he spread Wal-Mart out as a national chain, shifting from discount stores with 40-70,000 square feet of sales space, to increasingly building Sam's Club and supercenters, which typically have 150-200,000 square feet. The idea was to use its ability to sell a huge volume of goods, its sweat-shop pay to American workers, and its flood of cheap imports, to blow apart any competition. In the October 1996 issue of Wal-Mart Today, an internal company newsletter, Tom Coughlin, executive vice president for operations, summed up the approach: "At Wal-Mart, we make dust. Our competitors eat dust."
In looking at Iowa, we encounter a myth: that when Wal-Mart opened a store in Town A, it may have hurt by a small amount the sales of stores in other towns neighboring Town A—as the people from the other towns went to Wal-Mart to do some of their shopping; but nonetheless, Wal-Mart so increased the volume of sales at its own store and other stores in Town A, that the stores in the overall region experienced significant sales growth and job growth. Wal-Mart hired compliant research and marketing firms to "prove" this point. This is a lie.
We look at what happened to Iowa communities of 5,000 or fewer people. Significant research has been done in this area by Prof. Kenneth Stone of Iowa State University, which we draw upon. Since it is difficult to see what effect occurred after only one or two years, we look at the effects after ten years or longer.
Using sales tax records, Professor Stone compared the change in sales volume at stores located in towns where Wal-Mart opened one of its stores (a "Wal-Mart Town", and in the neighboring towns where Wal-mart did not open a store ("Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Town". In cases selected from the study, the sales at Wal-Mart stores themselves are not included, since the focus here is to measure the "Wal-Mart effect": Once Wal-Mart opens a store, what happens to all the other stores in the neighboring communities, in Iowa communities of 5,000 or fewer people?
Figure 1 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa home furnishings stores (furniture stores, major appliance stores, drapery stores, etc.). One year after Wal-Mart opened a store in a town, in the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, at home furnishing stores the sales volume collapsed by 14%. People from the Non Wal-Mart Towns travelled to the towns where a Wal-Mart had opened, to purchase a share of their home furnishings at the Wal-Mart store. However, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, in the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, at home furnishing stores the sales volume had fallen a stunning 31% below the level it had been ten years earlier. A large number of home furnishing stores were forced to close.
In the Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at home furnishing stores had declined by only 1%. Clearly, the home furnishing stores located at Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, had suffered the brunt of the damage.
Figure 2 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa specialty stores (sporting goods stores, druggists, jewelry stores, card and gift shops, florists, etc.). In the Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at specialty stores had plunged by 17%. In the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at specialty stores had tumbled by 28%.
Figure 3 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa apparel stores, showing a 28% decline by the tenth year in both Wal-Mart Towns and Non Wal-Mart Towns. The Wal-Mart Towns had not escaped the Wal-Mart effect.
Thus, Wal-Mart's assertion that the sales by a range of stores in Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns would fall by a small amount, and that the sales volume by a range of stores in Wal-Mart Towns would rise significantly, is completely false.
Putting aside this myth, Figure 4 shows the catastrophe caused by the Wal-Mart effect in Iowa, inclusive of towns that did and did not have a Wal-Mart store. The period under consideration is 1983-96, three years longer than the earlier study, giving three more years of the devastation. By 1996, 13 years after a Wal-Mart had opened in a town, the volume of sales at department stores, which includes Wal-Mart and other large discount chains, rose by 42%. However, since 1983, sales at grocery stores fell by 11%; sales at drug stores fell by 32%; and sales at men's and boys' stores dropped headlong by 59%. Iowa's retail and grocery stores, which form the underpinning of communities, had been ravaged.
Table 1 shows the second phase of the Wal-Mart effect: the closing of stores whose revenues had collapsed. All told, a staggering 7,326 stores closed in Iowa communities of 5,000 or less people (the table covers a ten-year period through 1993; were it to cover the longer period through 1996, the number of store closings would be even greater). The health and vitality of these communities, including employment at rising wages and benefits, the generation of taxes, etc., will not be restored.
Nationwide Blood-Letting
Wal-Mart destroyed other communities and cities. For example:
Toledo, Ohio. Author Al Norman describes the effect of Wal-Mart and Home Depot (another outsourcing chain) on Toledo: "When I went for a walk in downtown Toledo, I passed the old Lamson dry goods store: 9 stories of empty retail space. Each floor is the size of a football field. The building served as the home of a Macy's Department store from 1924 to 1984. For the past fourteen years, the store has been empty. The City now owns it, which means the taxpayers of Toledo are paying the freight for its upkeep."
Nowata, Oklahoma. In 1982, Wal-Mart opened a store on the outskirts of Nowata, a town of 4,000 people. Half of the small businesses in downtown Nowata shut down. Then in 1994, Wal-Mart abruptly closed this store, as well as another in a nearby town, and opened up a supercenter in Bartlesville, which is 30 miles away, leaving Nowata prostrate.
Mississippi. A study found that in small towns in the state, five years after the opening of a Wal-Mart, the dollar volume of grocery store trade had collapsed 17%.
Vermont. In an attempt to stop Wal-Mart from becoming large in the state, various towns passed restrictions that would halt Wal-Mart construction. Wal-Mart built stores in the neighboring New Hampshire and New York, which sucked business out of Vermont.
Collapsing Tax Revenue
Despite all this, many states and communities are using taxpayers' money to finance subsidies to Wal-Mart, to come in and rape them.
In 1999, it was reported that in Olivette, Missouri, a developer received a tax incentive of up to $38.9 million for a construction project including a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club—more than a third of the projected total cost of the project. In 1998, it was reported that the city of Chesterfield, Missouri was supplying $25.5 million in tax incentives toward the construction of a $100 million-plus mall, anchored by a Wal-Mart. In 2001, Ohio approved $10 million in tax credits and other assistance for Wal-Mart to build two distribution centers and an eyeglass-manufacturing facility.
These insane subsidies draw down the public finances. At the same time, Wal-Mart decimates the tax-base through other methods:
Many stores which, unlike Wal-Mart, did not get tax breaks, are closed. This causes the loss to many states of sales taxes, and to all states of corporate profit taxes.
Workers at established stores that have been closed by the Wal-Mart effect, who were paid higher wages than workers at Wal-Mart, have been fired, causing a drop in state income taxes.
Wal-Mart's outsourcing caused the loss of 1-1.5 million manufacturing production jobs, and thus the taxes that these workers and the manufacturing plants that they worked at, would have paid.
States and cities often have to finance downtown revitalization programs for the areas devastated by Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart certainly produces a wealth effect: the loss of wealth. Just walk through any community downtown with its empty or boarded-up stores, to see the workings of the Wal-Mart effect.
posted on August 24, 2005 07:08:09 AM new
The Wal-Mart Revolution
The revolutionary promise of the 20th century was that workers would be paid well enough to buy the goods they produced-- creating an upward spiral of prosperity. But a new model based on lowering living standards is taking hold world wide.
In the United States Wal-Mart is more than just a participant in the low-wage economy: it is the most important single beneficiary of that economy. It uses its economic and political power to extend the scope of the low- wage economy and threatens to extend its business model into other sectors of the economy, undermining the wages of still more workers.
Wal-Mart is a modern retailing empire with 3550 outlets in the United States and plans for many more. It also has stores in at least ten countries and plans to open 120 additional stores in international markets. In barely ten years it has gained nearly 15 percent of the retail grocery sales in the United States. According to CEO Lee Scott, Wal-Mart seeks a 30% share of grocery sales and any other product line it carries. It is one of the giants of the "service sector" of our economy. Its $244.6 billion in sales in 2002* made up well over 2% of the total U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making it the world's biggest company (based on revenues). It is the 19th largest economy in the world. It is our nation's largest employer, with 1.3 million employees worldwide, with plans to hire 800,000 more over the next five years. Its stock is one of the thirty in the Dow Jones Average. Wal-Mart generates large chunks of the sales of major corporations, which reinforces its influence and impact on the wages of workers employed by others.
Wal-Mart is a symbol of the American economy of the 21st century, which stands in stark contrast to the symbol of the old economy: the automobile companies. Its executives no doubt believe the same thing those automobile executives of the 1950s believed when they said, "If it's good for General Motors, it must be good for the country." Wal-Mart is every bit the revolutionary influence that the Ford Motor Company was, but it portends a gloomy future rather than the new age of production that was Henry Ford's vision.
In fact Wal-Mart is the perfect example of what is wrong with the new low-wage economy and its effects on our society.
Let's start with wages. Henry Ford wanted automobile workers to be able to buy the cars his company produced. Although profoundly anti-union, he made it a point to pay wages that were above the prevailing wage of the time.
Wal-Mart does precisely the opposite. Its wage and benefit programs are designed to keep costs down and, in the process, because of its economic influence and market share, it drives down prevailing wage rates in the communities in which it operates. Wal-Mart has recently demanded cost data from suppliers so it can show them how to reduce costs. For many of them, this means lowering labor costs to reduce prices of goods sold on Wal-Mart shelves. Wal-Mart's purchasing power even drives down manufacturing wages in the developing world.
Wal-Mart's strategy is to use part time workers to reduce its benefit costs. "Associates" - as the company workers are dubbed - are told that if they work 34 (recently increased from 28) hours a week then they are "full time workers". According to Forbes, the self-styled capitalist tool, employees at Wal-Mart currently earn an average hourly wage of $7.50-20% to 30% less than unionized workers at Target and Kmart. The typical Wal-Mart employee earns $18,000 and isn't eligible for or cannot afford health benefits.
Wal-Mart has employed large numbers of women associates that it has paid less than their male counterparts. By maintaining these discriminatory practices Wal-Mart has reinforced its low wage structure and improved its bottom line. In 2001 a class-action lawsuit was filed challenging Wal-Mart's gender discrimination. Up to 1.5 million women workers could win damages.
Unlike Henry Ford, Wal-Mart seems unconcerned that its own employees are unable to afford the products that it sells. A recent analysis shows that a family of three with a single-parent breadwinner making a representative wage at the local Wal-Mart could not provide the basic necessities for that family based on an "adequate but austere" standardized budget for central Kansas - even with the employee discount!
Wal-Mart uses a predatory business model based on securing a competitive advantage from the low wages it pays employees and from its larger inventory. Typically, Mom-and-Pop local businesses are forced from local markets first, soon followed by less efficient larger competitors. Once the competitors are driven out, Wal-Mart slowly raises prices over a twelve to eighteen month period so consumers won't really notice.
Opposition to Wal-Mart is often based on its anti-competitive business practices. Communities in which there is opposition to Wal-Mart or other large-scale retailers sometimes try to enact special zoning ordinances limiting the size of stores. These tactics can be effective, especially if the community is well organized. Increasingly, however, Wal-Mart's superior financial resources are the key factor. They outspent a highly organized citizens group in Portage, MI, by 10-1 on a referendum. Wal-Mart routinely overwhelms citizens groups or simply moves to the next town and gets a higher bid to have the store built there instead. Wal-Mart is most concerned with preventing the unionization of its employees precisely because that is what offers the most far-reaching challenge to its corporate practices.
Democratic Socialists of America believes that it is imperative to force Wal-Mart to change. We are working along with many others to challenge the low-wage economy that increasingly dominates the lives of most working people. Ultimately the American economy cannot be sustained when driven mainly by the purchasing power of a relatively small group of well-off consumers. Only an economy in which the vast majority of workers earn enough to do more than just get by can bring prosperity to all Americans. It is impossible to envision that kind of economy as long as Wal-Mart is able to engage in business-as-usual.
We have no illusions that we can remake the economy without Wal-Mart. Instead we, and the broad progressive community, must change the basic political and economic conditions that allow Wal-Mart to ignore the well-being of its workers and the communities in which it operates.
The key to real change is to drive up the wages of Wal-Mart workers. Unionizing Wal-Mart workers will lead to higher wages and better benefits for all employees, will drive up wages in local communities, and will change the culture of the institution.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union is engaged in a major campaign to organize Wal-Mart workers. We fully support that campaign and we support legislative efforts to level the playing field. Labor law reform requiring employers to recognize a union as soon as a majority of workers have signed cards and preventing employers from dragging out bargaining is necessary to enable workers to better secure their rights.
Government can also act to raise and enforce minimum wage legislation. Living wage legislation that forces employers to provide prevailing local wages that include the cost of health care can also be enacted. Living wage legislation in many communities is limited to the employers providing municipal services, but we believe such legislation can be expanded to cover the employees of companies like Wal-Mart that benefit from tax breaks provided in many economic development packages.
Employers have always resisted unionization. But in fact our economy has always provided more for most Americans when large portions of the work force were unionized and could buy what their neighbors produced. This is one of the reasons why the loss of so many union jobs in the manufacturing sector is distressing. All of us must work to change the labor laws, support unions and their campaigns, and get the government on our side in order to abolish the low wage economy. Wal-Mart is a good place, but by no means the only place, to start.
*Our factual references are from information provided in company filings and news articles as reported by United for a Fair Economy as well as Reuters, Forbes, Fortune and the World Bank. Wal-Mart workers interested in learning more about the UFCW should contact the union or visit its websites: www.walmartswaronworkers.com and www.ufcw.org.
posted on August 24, 2005 07:13:58 AM new
Overview
It has been an up and down year for the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart. While the company broke new financial records, it also faced numerous lawsuits and a public scandal over a federal raid in October that netted illegal aliens employed as cleaning staff. (Get more facts and figures on Wal-Mart.)
The debate over Wal-Mart's effect on American towns and the American workforce is not new. "Wal-Martization" has become a code word for suburban sprawl. Yet this fall, the volume of that debate appears to have been turned up. TIME magazine ran a story about the demise of toy retailer FAO Schwarz titled "Will Wal-Mart Steal Christmas?" In October, BUSINESSWEEK magazine asked "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" In addition to news stories, opinion pieces abound. From the FORT-WORTH STAR TELEGRAM: "World's biggest company isn't purely a success story;" and from Cindy Rodriguez of the DENVER POST: "Wal-Mart's bargains may prove costly."
This is not to say that Wal-Mart faces a solid wall of criticism. In December 2003, THE NEW YORK TIMES ran a piece called "Is Wal-Mart good for America?" In the article economist Robert Reich suggested that Wal-Mart was the logical end product of an economy that places primary value on low prices. W. Michael Cox, chief economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, was quoted as saying: "Wal-Mart is the greatest thing that ever happened to low-income Americans. They can stretch their dollars and afford things they otherwise couldn't."
Some of the controversy surrounding Wal-Mart retail model relates to how these low prices are achieved. NOW's story investigates the role of wages, health care and tax abatement in keeping personnel costs at a minimum at Wal-Mart.
The Case of Overtime Pay
Last year NOW and THE NEW YORK TIMES investigated in "Off the Clock" allegations that Wal-Mart pressured workers to work overtime hours without pay. In December of 2002 an Oregon court ruled against the massive chain in an overtime pay case. Wal-Mart had previously settled two similar cases in New Mexico and Colorado. In addition, Wal-Mart faces numerous additional lawsuits related to overtime pay and a proposed large class-action sex discrimination suit.
The Case of the Undocumented Workers
In October 2003, Wal-Mart received another blow. Hundreds of undocumented workers at 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states were arrested in an operation launched by the Department Of Homeland Security on immigration charges. The investigation centered around Wal-Mart's use of janitorial contractors. If the government can prove Wal-Mart knowingly hired undocumented immigrants, it could be fined up to $10,000 per illegal worker.
Wal-Mart as Grocer
In 2003 Wal-Mart made great inroads as a grocer. Its sales now account for an ever-increasing percentage of American grocery sales. According to THE ECONOMIST, Wal-Mart's sheer bulk buying power, the efficiency of IT structures and a non-unionized workforce combine to enable it to sell brand-name products at a significant discount. Recently, consulting firm Retail Forward released a report that concluded that for every Wal-Mart Supercenter that opens in the next five years, two supermarkets will close their doors. That would mean the loss of 2,000 more stores in five years, or 400 a year.
Wal-Mart Facts and Figures
World's largest retailer, 2003: Wal-Mart
United State's largest private employer, 2003: Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart's worldwide workforce: 1.3 million
Wal-Mart's most 2002 annual sales figures: $245 billion
Gross Domestic Product of Switzerland, 2002: 231 billion
Number of Wal-Mart stores worldwide: 4,300
Number of Wal-Mart stores opened on October 29, 2003: 39
Average hourly wage of Wal-Mart employee, 2001: $8.23
Average hourly wage of unionized supermarket workers: $10.35
Wal-Mart's price of Kellogg's Corn Flakes vs. competitors price: 56%
Sources: THE NEW YORK TIMES; BUSINESSWEEK; THE ECONOMIST; THE BERGEN RECORD, FORT WORTH FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM; DENVER POST; FAST COMPANY; THE OLYMPIAN; Retail Forward; CIA World Factbook; Wal-Mart Corporation
posted on August 24, 2005 08:18:47 AM new
Ha! Maggie, the anti-christ runs and hides when it sees a Walmart exec.
Yup, Walmart is made for people who support
illegal aliens
keeping people on welfare
destroying middle American initiative
slave (unpaid) labor
sex discrimination
but I guess if you're too POOR to shop elsewhere you'll enjoy it's "sweet fruit", scooter wide aisles, clean restrooms(oooh, motion sensor faucets, sure to impress!).
Oh, I alsmost forgot ...isn't it wonderful that the elderly in America have to work there when they should be at home enjoying their retirement.
posted on August 24, 2005 08:26:45 AM new
no one put a gun to our head to shop at Walmart or work for Walmart.
I dont shop at Walmart because we dont have one closeby and I cant find what I want in Walmart.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
Caroline